The National Science
Foundation (NSF) announced the first annual Computer and Information
Science and Engineering (CISE) Distinguished Education Fellows at a
ceremony at NSF's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters. Owen Astrachan of
Duke University and Peter Denning of the Naval Postgraduate School were
each recognized for their outstanding efforts to revitalize
undergraduate computing education in the United States.

As part of the fellowships, Astrachan and Denning will receive funding from NSF to continue their work over the next two years.

The fellowships are a component of a broader NSF initiative called
the CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education
Program (CPATH) Program. CPATH is working to ensure that undergraduate
computing education in the U.S. attracts and prepares young people for
futures in the computer science sector.

The CISE Distinguished Education Fellow awards focus on creating
visible national leadership for revitalizing computing education. The
fellowships recognize accomplished, creative and talented computing
professionals who have the potential to serve as national leaders or
spokespersons for change in undergraduate computing education.

The fellowships are made to individuals who have achieved
distinction in the computing profession, who are committed to
transforming undergraduate computing education, and who have innovative
ideas on how to do so. The fellowships allow recipients to spend
significant time and effort on projects focused on innovative, original
and possibly untested ideas that will benefit undergraduate computing
education on a national scale.

The United States is currently the world leader in computer science
and engineering, but other nations are quickly catching up, and
enrollment in computer science programs has declined in recent years.

"We need to inspire the best and brightest to go into computing,"
Jeannette Wing, the assistant director at NSF for CISE, said at the
ceremony. "There remain in computer science many deep, challenging
problems to be solved by the next generation."

The newly-named fellows have spent their careers trying to meet this
challenge. Astrachan will work to merge the concept of problem-based
learning, a successful concept in business and medical education, into
undergraduate computing education. "Programs need students to be able
to solve real, domain-specific problems after a computing course,"
rather than teach only abstract theories, Astrachan said. He also
pointed out that problem-based learning has a proven track record in
getting a variety of students excited about a subject and engaged for
the long term.

Denning's work will focus on identifying and understanding the
principles of computer science and then applying them to modern day
computing challenges. "We enshrined the principles of the 1960s to our
core curricula," Denning said. "That worked well for a few years, but
now our dreams of what computing can do lie elsewhere." Denning
explained that students have shown their dislike to this approach by
"voting with their feet" and avoiding computer science. "We need to get
back to the excitement of inventing," Denning said, to make computer
science relevant and compelling to the next generation.

In addition to conveying a vision for revitalizing education,
fellows will serve as ambassadors for change, working with colleagues
at colleges and universities across the country to revitalize
undergraduate computing education.

They know change won't be easy. "Getting people to change how they
do things is a long slog," Denning said. "But having NSF behind this
gives it recognition and cache."

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal
agency that supports fundamental research and education across all
fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of $5.92
billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,700
universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 42,000
competitive requests for funding, and makes over 10,000 new funding
awards. The NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and
service contracts yearly.

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